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Illiteracy Crisis

The Mess We’re In: Understanding The Illiteracy and Sub-Literacy Crisis

Sixty-four percent of students in Colorado performed below the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Proficient Level in Reading in 2024. The percent of Black students who performed below proficient was 88% and for Hispanic students that number was 93%. These performance gaps were not significantly different from those in 1998. The Nation’s Report Card

The U.S. Dept of Labor estimates that illiteracy costs the American economy about $225 billion a year in lost human productivity, and it has been estimated that bringing all adults in the U.S. to an equivalent of a sixth-grade reading level would increase the Gross Domestic Product by 10%, or approximately $2.2 trillion”

(Rothwell, J. (2020). Assessing the economic gains of eradicating illiteracy nationally and regionally in the United States. Gallup, Inc.).

Where we went wrong with teaching America’s children how to read and write…

The Truth About Reading looks at the illiteracy problem in America, highlighting people who learned to read as adults, and sharing proposed solutions for working towards a future where every child learns to read proficiently. Run Time: 80 Minutes. Available with Closed Captions and Spanish Subtitles
The Right to Read tells the story of an NAACP activist and teacher who come together and fight to provide our youngest generation with the most foundational indicator of life-long success: the ability to read. Run Time: 71 Minutes. Available with Closed Captions and Spanish Subtitles.
The Sold A Story podcast is an expose of how educators came to believe in something that isn’t true and are now reckoning with the consequences – children harmed, money wasted, an education system upended.